Sunday, November 25, 2012

Progression of a Scratcher and Some Lessons

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Step One
I painted a 5 x 7 board a couple of days ago. On Saturday I scratched it
with an embossing stylus and sanded the surface with a sanding block.
Then I sketched my apples with burnt umber.
My next experiment will be to stop here with the background
and just paint the main subjects. I think this would be a more
successful painting if I had stopped here.

Step 2
I began to add some colors to the background. The addition of the colors
(especially the pink) makes it now difficult to photograph and it comes out blue!
I am just dry brushing on some color. Again this would have made
a more successful painting I think if I had remembered less is more. I also
think painting green apples would have been better.

I thought those of you who have wondered how these "scratching" paintings start might be interested to see how "Combo" started. I'm still experimenting and they all don't start this way. Sometimes I take an old painting that is tired and not one of my best, sand it with a sanding block and then paint and scratch into the wet paint. Sometimes I paint directly on to a white Gessobord and then scratch into the wet paint.

It's not an entirely successful painting and I will be trying it again with some of the lessons I learned along the way. Each step has some qualities about it that I like, but again...less is more.